Some weeks, I have to confess, I totally lose my customary enthusiasm for criticising the power-freaks, incompetents, criminals and outright crazies who make life as miserable as possible for the majority of mankind by posing as political leaders.

And this past week I’ve been especially tempted to give up expressing my antipathy to these bleeders and misleaders, as for a couple of days my attention was diverted from the deadly state of politics by dire personal news.

My doctor doubtless had the best of intentions when she referred me for a chest X-ray. Whether this was a ploy on her part to panic me into stopping smoking after her all her attempts at persuasion had failed, or whether she genuinely suspected that 52 years of the filthy habit had finally given me lung cancer, I’m not sure.